World News - Off-Duty Officer Critical After Fellow Officer Shoots Him; NYPD's First in Over a Decade

In a tragic case of mistaken identity, police shot and critically wounded an off-duty officer as he pointed a gun at a suspect outside a fast food restaurant early Saturday, authorities said. Eric Hernandez, 25, was hit three times and was hospitalized in extremely critical condition, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. The officer who pulled the trigger, identified only as a 20-year veteran of the force, was being treated for trauma at another hospital. Hernandez had been in line at a White Castle restaurant in the Bronx shortly before 5 a.m. when he was assaulted by a half-dozen men, Bloomberg said. It wasn't immediately clear what sparked the fight, but it was captured on the restaurant's security camera. A White Castle employee called 911, and Hernandez with his gun drawn ran into the parking lot after his assailants, Bloomberg said. ... http://abcnews.go.com

Six years after instituting a policy of nationalizing white-owned farms and evicting their owners, Zimbabwe's government has begun to seize white-owned land in urban Harare. Some 200 workers were rounded up by police and forced out of their homes last week. The workers lived and were employed on Gletwyn, a large property in the midst of several wealthy suburbs, 14 kilometers east of the city center. Many of them had lived there all their lives. Gletwyn is an old farm, incorporated into the city of Harare in 1996. The owners, two brothers, planned to subdivide the land into a new suburb, but would continue to grow specialist crops, such as corn seed. Police arrived before Christmas and said they were going to build houses for themselves on Gletwyn. Ian Ross, 68, said the police started harassing and evicting hundreds of workers from their homes. "They arrived to evict the workers, which they did piece by piece, village by village, compound by compound. ...http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=13674

World trade negotiations are back on track after officials meeting in Davos agreed a new timetable to achieve an agreement this year. The "work programme" outlines a precise timetable for 33 contentious subjects from agriculture to aid for trade. The breakthrough was a deal to move on all key issues agriculture, services and manufacturing at the same time. The US trade representative said there was now "an unparalleled opportunity to boost the global economy". This would lift millions out of poverty, said Robert Portman. EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson spoke of a "better mood" at the negotiating table. They were speaking after an informal meeting of trade officials from about 25 nations on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. In the run-up to Sat agreement trade officials from the EU, US and developing nations had engaged in a furious series of briefings blaming each other for stalling the talks by demanding that the issues closest to their interests be resolved first...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4657136.stm

Special temporary U.S. residency issued to thousands of Central Americans is due to expire in the coming months, and with the debate over immigration increasingly fierce, many of the immigrants fear they will be sent home. The temporary status granted to Nicaraguans and Hondurans after Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and to Salvadorans following a devastating earthquake in 2001 has been renewed repeatedly with little public debate, but opposition is growing. Critics say the program was never meant to be permanent and that it's time for the more than 300,000 people it protects to return home....http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1552125&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief Saturday warned the United States and Britain that Iran would respond with its missiles if attacked, a clear threat to Israel which lies within easy range of such a launch. "The world knows Iran has a ballistic missile power with a range of 2,000 kilometers," Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi said on state-run television. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Saturday that military action against Iran over its nuclear ambitions is "genuinely" not on the table, ahead of talks with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed El-Baradei, in Davos, Switzerland. Iran's improved version of Shahab-3 missile can strike more than 1,300 miles from their launch site, putting Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East in easy range. "We have no intention to invade any country. We will take effective defense measures if attacked," he said. "These missiles are in the possession of the Guards." ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/28/world/main1248976.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=World_1248976

People in Georgia are facing several more days without heating, despite a deal with Iran to provide gas supplies to ease the country's energy crisis. It will take two days for the Iranian gas to reach Georgia and yet longer for the gas to reach everyone in need. Millions have been suffering the worst winter for decades, without power, with temperatures plummeting to minus 20C. The outages happened after explosions wrecked a gas pipeline from Russia and bad weather damaged power lines. Many Georgians have been trying to keep warm around makeshift wood-burning stoves, or queuing for hours to buy kerosene or bottled gas. "My kids are freezing and my patience is running out," Lia Davitashvili, a Tbilisi resident who has been without gas for a week and electricity for three days, told Reuters. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4657466.stm